Felony Disenfranchisement: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Is it not weird to anybody else that a Governor is responsible for deciding who can and cannot vote, especially when that decision is based on his own personal opinion.

Stop unvalidating the point with your prescence, wheaboo

+JuicetÜne VVeeB Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption

I find it braindead that to legally gain your voting rights back you have to appear before a board that does not work with the legal system.

+entertain7us14 Supposedly. In practice, though, it very much is a privilege. If you're poor or from a minority group you are much more likely to have your vote taken from you one way or another. Millions in the UK couldn't vote because of sneaky law changes shortly before recent elections.

It sounds like he's power hungry, and looked for a way to have power of individuals.

The amendment just got passed

+kacsa00001 laws are not morality.

+Radicalbeast Never got that about America and ID laws.Its a gold standard in europe that everyone has unique ID from age 8 or something and yes you have to identify yourself to the police and if you are not a citizen or on visa its a felony and of to jail with you yes even the socialist utopias of europe have these laws (you bet your ass they are required to vote no question in every single EU country) .The only reason the enlightened not-hillbilly left-leaning people oppose this (even tho they bang o...

"There's no standards. So we can make any decision we want."Sounds perfectly fair to me ... assuming you live in a totalitarian dictatorship where human rights have been declared illegal. Btw ... asking if you go to church is a blatant violaion of the first amendment which gives you the right to choose any religion you like including none at all.

+Susan Williams EXACTLY! It's terrifying that our original reason to be a free country (taxation without representation) has gone out the window.

I am not from the US, but your seperation of church and state has always puzzled me, when it is something you objectively don't have, and yet love to pretend you do. To me it seems obvious that it means that religion should have no influence in how laws are made and enforced, and a person's religion should not make a difference to how a person is treated, beyond a few reasonable accommodations. Laws should not be made to restrict specific religious practices that would otherwise be legal, and religion ...

Good news everybody, Florida passed the amendment and 1.4 million felons can now vote again!

Wolf NZ Outdoors sounds about right.

+Adowrath We're all *told* that they are, but that doesn't make it so. It's been described as a "Polyarchy" - in which political power resides in the wealthy minority... also known as a "Plutocracy".They also _call themselves_ the greatest nation on Earth and claim that other people in other countries are "jealous" of them and that the country was founded on Christian values - as if merely having the ability to annihilate the population of Earth makes you "great"...

Asking weather or not they go to church should be 101% illegal. He should be charged with abuse of power, the man is obviously discriminating based on religion.

To be honest getting your right to vote back should be automatic you already did your time and shouldn’t have some politicians deciding if you can vote again that seems like a conflict of interest

The panel doesn't have to follow a particular lawful standard? So I guess the Bill of Rights doesn't hold up in a United States court, then?

Anyone who has served their time should have their voting rights restored. No questions. If they are free to walk among the general populace then obviously they're considered safe enough to exist in society. Why are they refused a vote?

thank you

That's not what anyone said or eluded to at all. People who can't stay on point or follow a basic argue should be barred from voting.

German prisons actively encourage and enable people to vote (only way to get disenfranchised is treason and electoral fraud, apparently, and those sanctions are always time-limited). In my opinion, that's the right way to go about it. Voting gives people a stake in the society they live in. It makes them consider the kind of country they want to see. And being at the mercy of the state to a particularly high degree makes it even more important for those imprisoned to be able to vote.

+MrDecessus americans love to hate americans

Very interesting, I didn't know yet, even though I live in Germany.

Wish mainstream media would cover such issues. Issues that affect real lives not the Trump garbage they cover 24/7

to be fair trump gives them enough in tweets alone to cover on a daily basis

+Random User I may have watched that episode since I try to catch John Oliver's show since he started on HBO. Cut cord, watch here on YouTube. I remember the Sinclair nonsense, they destroyed the news team I loved in Cincinnati when they took over so I jo longer watch. They looked miserable reading those scripts last I watched them. No more fun in the morning had by them.

Just because some is a convicted felon doesn't necessarily make them a criminal. My dad refused the draft for Vietnam as a conscientious objector and had to go to prison. So now he is a convicted felon and can't vote even if he wanted to. Human governments are inept, cruel, and untrustworthy.

Let's add all the people wrongly convicted of crimes. It happens all the time.

Battle5star American* Governments